


Can I Help, Too?

by okay_klepto



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon Universe, F/F, Fluff, Gen, Mutual Pining, Season/Series 07, maybe? - Freeform, on the way to Earth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-23
Updated: 2018-07-23
Packaged: 2019-06-14 19:44:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15396042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/okay_klepto/pseuds/okay_klepto
Summary: It's hard being the only one without a "thing."  Everyone is a paladin or has some special skill.  Everyone, except for Romelle.  She just wants to help out when the paladins land on a remote planet on the way back to Earth.  But when she goes to help Pidge map coordinates, it turns out that Romelle really does have a knack for something, and it's not just looking pretty sat in front of a computer screen.





	Can I Help, Too?

**Author's Note:**

> My girl Romelle needs some love, and I always thought that she and Pidge would be cute together. So I threw this together to satisfy my needs.
> 
> And it must also kinda suck for Romelle not having a little niche or place like everyone else. So Imma change that.

   Trips through space were supposed to be exciting, right?  They were supposed to be filled with chatting and gossiping and snacking and fun games like "name the constellation" or "guess what Keith and Lance will bicker about next."  Well, that’s what Romelle _thought_ trips through space were supposed to be like, but instead they were just days of being stuck inside one of the Lions doing absolutely nothing while everyone else argued about which way to go or which planets to stop at to rest and tune up the Lions.  One person could only sit for so long in one spot before going absolutely insane.  Romelle had tried to play the video games Pidge and Lance had, but they were difficult since she didn’t understand any of the text or dialogue.  She needed to get out of this robotic prison.

   Now, they were all on some planet with tall trees and odd shrubbery, Lions landed on a massive clearing near a waterfall.  Romelle kicked a stone into the water as she watched the others hard at work: Hunk and Lance examining one of the Lions’ engines, or whatever they ran on, Allura and Coran looking at maps projected into the air that depicted Garlan units stationed throughout the cosmos, debating how to avoid attacks.  Keith and Krolia had gone into the woods to look for food and get a read on the terrain, and Shiro, of course, was still on strict bedrest, going in and out of the monitor healer in regular cycles.  Romelle was left by herself, well, except for Pidge, who was still cooped up in the Green Lion trying to figure out how to map a route to Earth for the Lions to follow.

   “Is the Lion alright?”  Romelle asked as she approached Hunk and Lance, both leaning into the open hatch of the Yellow Lion.

   “Hey, Romelle~” Lance leaned one arm on the body of the Lion and smiled at Romelle.  “How you doin’?”

   “Lion’s doing well,” Hunk answered to Romelle, wiping the sweat from his forehead before turning to her.  “I think we got something worked out so ol’ Yellow here won’t have to work too hard flying through space for the next few days.  Her extra weight can make her use a lot of extra energy as she flies.”

   “Oh…”  Romelle looked down at the ground.  “So, you two don’t need any help?”

   “Well…”  Lance leaned towards Romelle and flashed one of his signature grins.  “I certainly wouldn’t mind a little it of help from a pretty little-”

   “Lance.”  Hunk’s voice made Lance snap upright.  Hunk’s glare faded as he looked past Lance to Romelle.  “Thank you for offering, but I think Lance and I have it all under control.  Allura and Coran might want another set of eyes on the charts they have.  New eyes mean new ideas, right?”

   Romelle gave a slight nod as she turned away.

    "Why do you have to flirt with everything that moves!?"  Romelle heard Hunk say to Lance as she was leaving.

    "I was just trying to be nice!"

    Romelle walked towards Allura and Coran from behind.

   “We have to either go around or through!  We don’t have another option!”

   “I’m telling you!  They’ll move by then!  And I don’t want to add so much extra time!”

   “Well, why not go this way, then stop here, and it’s a straight shot to that belt?”

   “That may just work…”

   “How’s it going?”  Romelle asked Allura and Coran when she heard a lull in their debate.

   “Just swimmingly, Rommie!”  Coran’s voice was cheerful as usual.  “I think the Princess and I have found a route that will cause us to fall into far less danger than the one before!”

   “I still think it could be shorter…”  Allura grumbled as she manipulated the little, colored shapes that were being projected.

   “So, you don’t need help?”  Romelle asked, disheartened.

   “Not particularly,” Allura responded, turning to face Romelle.  “Could you just go make sure Pidge got these new plans?  And that she hasn’t overheated inside of Green?”

   Romelle turned away once again with new orders.  “Yeah…”

   Coran and Allura went back to analyzing maps while Romelle walked back over to the Lions.

    _Romelle do this, Romelle, do that,_ she thought as she kicked at the ground.   _I wish I was a real paladin with something to do.  I’m just the pointless-errand girl._

   The ramp leading into Green was already open, so Romelle just let herself in.  The ramp was long and steep, feeling even longer and steeper in the roasting heat and humidity of the planet they had landed on.  Inside of Green wasn’t much better; the metal the Lions were made of heated up like an oven.  Romelle fanned herself as she walked towards the cockpit of Green, knowing that there was where she would find Pidge.

   “Hey.”  Romelle tried to keep her voice quiet as she approached Pidge perched on her seat, computer screens glowing all around her.  “How’s it going?”

   “Hey, Romelle,” Pidge greeted as she typed away at her keyboard, eyes going from screen to screen.  “It’s going fine.”

   Romelle took a few steps closer.  “It’s a little hot in here, don’t you think?”

   “Not as hot as outside.”

   Romelle frowned at Pidge’s bland responses to her attempts at conversation.  “Allura was wondering if you got her new plans.”

   Pidge groaned.  “Yeah.  I did. Is she going to change it again and make he start over for the hundredth time!?”

   Romelle fidgeted at Pidge’s backhanded comment.  “Is it hard?”

   “No,” Pidge grumbled with intense exasperation, gritting her teeth.  “At least it shouldn’t be.  I know exactly how to get the coordinates into the, like, Lions' GPS, but all of the checkpoints Allura gives me are in reference to Altean constellations and names, so I have to look on these other maps to find them and calculate their coordinates but I have no idea where anything is since we've gone out so far and the text is tiny and space is humungous and” -Pidge covered her face with her hands and groaned- “it’s most tedious game of connect-the-damn-dots!”

   “Well, do you want any help?”

   “Do you know anything about coding or mapping?”

   Romelle knew Pidge didn’t mean to sound condescending, but her words hurt either way.

   “Like this!”  Pidge pointed to a line of text on one of the screens.  “She wants to go through the King Alun nebula!  Where the-”

   “It’s right there.”  Romelle pointed to a fuzzy area on Pidge’s projected map.

   Pidge stopped, mouth open, staring at the spot Romelle was pointing to.  “Oh. Thanks.” Pidge quickly marked the coordinate and sent it to the Lions’ maps.  "You can read that tiny text?"

   “Not really.  I just know where the King Alun Nebula is.  Any other points?”

   “Uh…” Pidge went back to another screen.  “Planet… Nefrus in the Wal-”

   “First or second quadrant?”  Romelle asked before Pidge could finish her sentence.

   “Second.”

   “I would have gone with first,” Romelle scoffed as she moved her finger.  “Right there.  It’s the biggest one.”

   “What about Asteroid B-12 in the Prince Belt?”

   “It’s the smallest one, sort of off by itself.”  Romelle chuckled.  “You know, some people say that asteroid B-12 is so small that, if it rotated like a planet, you could walk around it and always be in daylight.”

   “Really?”  Pidge commented, finally looked up at Romelle who was still leaning over her chair.

   “Yeah.  And it’s pretty amazing that the belt is still intact.  All of those asteroids somehow managed to stay all clustered together while revolving around Gaxick 33.”

   “They revolve around a planet?”

   “Yup!”  Romelle swiped the map slightly so a giant circle was visible in the corner.  “It’s one of the most massive planets ever found.  Its Vishta Maximum is so huge that the Prince Belt stays within the gravitational pull the whole way out by Walim 4!”

   Pidge’s eyes were huge as she watched Romelle go into detail about these planets and celestial bodies.  She looked wonderful in the lighting of the computers, too, hair pulled back into braids and cheek marks shining brightly.

   “Hey, um…”  Pidge quickly scrambled to find something for Romelle to sit on.  “Sit down.  You’re… you’re really good at this.”

   “Oh!”  Romelle turned her face away at Pidge’s compliment.  “I… I just like the stars.”

   Pidge felt her heart skip a beat when she noticed Romelle’s new attire.  Gone were her baggy pants and shirt.  Now she had one what looked like one of Krolia’s tank tops (sitting so nicely on her chest) and a pair of rolled up shorts, most likely to help her combat the heat.  She looked so cute like that, her skin so pale and soft.

   “So, you studied astronomy?”  Pidge asked with a dry mouth.

   “A little.  It was always an interest of mine, and the Galra and Alteans had so many maps and charts of what seemed like the entire universe!”  Romelle chuckled. “I don’t know how I happened to remember them…”

   “Well, do you want to find some more places for me?”

   Romelle’s eyes widened with joy.  “Of course!”

   “Next we need…” Pidge leaned in and squinted at the screen.

   “Oh!  Pidge!”  Romelle put a hand on Pidge’s shoulder and pulled her back.  “No wonder you can’t read anything!  Your glasses are filthy!”

   Without a second thought, Romelle pulled Pidge’s glasses off her face and breathed onto them.  She rubbed the large lenses with her shirt, examining them for streaks as she went.

    _What are you doing!?_  Romelle yelled to herself.   _Seriously!?  The glasses!?  What are you trying to do!?_

Pidge, even without her glasses, could just make out what Romelle was doing.  Pidge blushed when her eyes lowered to the strip of exposed skin on Romelle’s tummy when she’d lift her shirt to clean her glasses, the ends of two faint blue streaks just peeking out from under her pants.

   “There!”  Romelle carefully slid Pidge’s glasses back onto her face.  “All clean!”

   Now Romelle's heart jumped when she took her hands away and looked at Pidge’s face, eyes blinking rapidly and lips pouted slightly.

   Maybe the cockpit heated up, or maybe it was just the girls in it, but both of their cheeks burst into flames before they both turned away from each other, doing their best not to show their sudden waves of emotion.

   “So where’s the next location?”  Romelle whispered, turned back to the map and keeping her eyes fixed on it.

   “Lios Dia, in the Ram’s Head constellation,” Pidge responded with short breath.

   Romelle pointed to a star.  “Right here.  See the Ram’s Head?  With the horn?”

   “Yeah, I do.”

   “Some people call in the Mountain Spirit constellation, or the Mountain’s Helm, but there’s a different constellation with that name already.”

   “Really?”

   “Yeah.  See, the story dates back to ancient times when the goddesses…”

**Author's Note:**

> hell yeah
> 
> (also, if you got the little reference I put in here, put a ⭐ in your comment.)
> 
> Thank you so much for reading, and I really hope you enjoyed this fic! Don’t forget to check out my [other works](https://archiveofourown.com/users/okay_klepto) as well. As always, comments and kudos are much appreciated, and please consider making a small [Ko-fi donation](https://ko-fi.com/okayklepto) if you enjoy my writing!


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